Internal Promises, Chapter 2

I've only seen one mention of the fact that Clint has a book on his lap in the shawarma restaurant. Considering the nature of fandom, I thought that was odd, so I included it here. Also, in most of the interactions I've seen between Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, they bring out each other's funny side – that provided the inspiration for the latter part of this chapter. Also, while the last chapter set this one up, I have to say that I like this one better. Yay!

Clint was pretty sure he'd never been this tired in his entire life, and that was saying something. He did manage to raise his leg onto Natasha's chair, of which he was vaguely proud. He figured out how truly down-and-dirty tired he was when he found himself reading the shawarma menu, completely ignoring his surroundings in the process. As a kid, when he wanted to avoid the world around him, he would retreat into books, magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes – anything that took his focus off of what was going on around him. He hadn't done it in years, though, not since he chose his current career path. Given, it wasn't like he or Tasha was in a lot of danger when Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Hulk's alter ego were sitting at the same table, but still.

Dude was tired.

THE AVENGERS

As the Avengers gathered to see Thor and Loki off, Clint was filled with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, he had read years ago that one of the Asgardian forms of punishment involved dripping snake venom into a criminal's eye for eternity. So yes, he was quite pleased that Thor was claiming jurisdiction. Unfortunately as he was more rested now, the anger and confusion over what Loki had done to his mind were also better able to come to the surface.

Natasha sensed the difficulty that Clint was having and as Thor stepped away with Loki, she leaned up to the archer's ear and whispered, "Quick – shove an arrow up his ass."

Clint couldn't help but smile. He knew there was a reason he loved this woman.

The two of them watched the rest of the Avengers disperse in Thor's wake. The evening before they had returned to Stark Tower along with Tony and the rest of their new team for hot showers and some sleep. Clint and Natasha had wordlessly accepted separate sleeping quarters before spending the night in the same bed doing nothing but sleep. Now without a word to each other, they got in the car that Tony had provided and drove off, both knowing that they would head to a cabin that Natasha kept off the grid about two hours away. They could stop at a strip mall on the way to get supplies. The things they couldn't replace easily, that being their weapons, were already in the trunk.

They had been on the road for about half an hour when Clint started to laugh. Natasha looked over at him, curious. Neither of them had said anything since they got in the car, so his sudden mirth seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Clint? Want to share with the class?"

This just made him laugh harder. Natasha wasn't sure whether to be alarmed or to start laughing with him.

"Um, Clint, seriously? Are you okay?"

"We just – We just – We just – "

Her best friend was clearly trying to say something, but he couldn't get it out through his laughter.

As his eyes squeezed shut and actual tears started to leak out of the corners of his eyes, Natasha sat helpless as her best friend pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the highway. As cars zoomed by, he opened the door and practically crawled onto the shoulder, doubled over in seeming hysterics. Chuckling in confusion more than anything else, Natasha got out of her door and went around to pull Clint around to the side of the car on which there were no speeding cars.

"We just – We just – " Clint was still trying to communicate as he leaned against the passenger door with his hands on his knees.

"Clint, take a breath! What is it?"

Laughter answered.

"It's been a rough week – I could use a good joke!"

Clint struggled for breath and looked up.

"We just – We just – "

"This again?"

"We just fought flying alien worm lizards from outer space with the help of a GOD!"

That was all it took. Natasha lost it right along with Clint.

The two of them slid down the side of the car, the sound of passing cars providing the background soundtrack.

A few minutes later, Clint's laughter began to subside and he feebly batted his hand on Natasha's shoulder.

"What?" she managed to breathe out.

"I was going to say 'oh, my God', but then I realized I should say 'oh, my Thor'."

They looked each other in the eye and Natasha burst out, "OMT! OMT!"

The highly trained, lethal assassins collapsed into what some might term another fit of raucous giggles.

Some time later, the two of them began to regain some semblance of control.

Still laughing as he did so, Clint turned his head to look at Natasha and said, "Wow, I love you."

Natasha took a deep shuddering breath and said, "Oh, thank Thor."

Clint snort-laughed. "What?"

"Thank Thor you love me, because I love you, and if you didn't love me back, it was gonna really suck."

"Like that was gonna happen."

Natasha put her head on Clint's shoulder and he leaned his head over to rest on hers.

Clint reached his hand across his body and ran it through the redhead's hair.

"So, you ready for some time off or what?"

"Thor, yes," she answered with a smile.

To be continued...

My family and I recently starting saying, "Oh, my Thor" and "OMT". I knew we couldn't be the only ones! :D